Most ‘mehengi sarkar’: Congress

New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday chided the Modi government as the most “mehengi sarkar” (costliest govt), for the people, taxing them heavily, left, right and centre, earning over Rs21.5-lakh crore by imposing additional excise duty on petrol and diesel over the last six years. Party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told a Press conference here that this “arrogant” government refuses to acknowledge the people’s problems or give them any relief, but only adopt 5 favourite Ds of the famous ‘Do’ (2) government of ‘hum do, hamare do’. The five Ds are: divide, deceive, dupe, distract and delude, he said. He pointed out that in the international market, crude oil is 39.2% cheaper but the petrol and diesel are 27.5% and 42.2% costlier in India. He asked the government to roll back the additional “Modi tax” of Rs23.78 a litre on petrol and 28.37 on diesel. The reduction will make petrol price Rs67.39 per litre and diesel Rs53.10 a litre, he said. Singhvi said the government even did not spare the housewives by jacking up the price of the domestic gas cylinder by Rs200 over the last 3 months, consistently lying about subsidy on the LPG cylinder. The harsh reality is the LPG’s market and controlled prices are the same. —Our Bureau